By Miranda Tomlinson

What looked to be an early blowout game with Chaparral leading St. Mary’s 17-2 after just one quarter of play turned into a comeback road win by St. Mary’s boys basketball team in its final game of the regular season.

Even after being down 30-15 at the half, St. Mary’s came back to defeat Chaparral to spoil Chaparral’s Senior Night, 59-54.

Although the final score of the game was not what Chaparral wanted nor expected, coach Dan Peterson and the team continued to stay positive.

“We had great energy. I mean we did what we wanted to do,” Peterson said. “We came out, we defended, you know, we kept them to one shot. We were able to run out and get good looks. We played well. First half, I couldn’t have asked them to do any better, and I think what they did is just got a little bit comfortable, a little relaxed and then they didn’t realize that there are two halves to the game.”

Just the same may have been the case for St. Mary’s early on in the first half. Coach Ty Amundsen said that his team came into tonight’s matchup with a certain laid back mentality that was most likely the cause for their slow start.

“It’s always difficult when you step onto the court and you know that they aren’t playing some of their starters and they weren't,” Amundsen said. “They were short handed today. We knew that coming in so I think that our mentality wasn’t there to start off the game. So, I feel like after we started to figure out that, hey, the kids that are on the floor are playing and kicking our butt, well you know what, we stepped it up in the second half.”

In the St. Mary’s locker room at the half, Amundsen said that he didn’t say a single word.

“I went in there, I washed my hands and I told them ‘let’s go’,” Amundsen added. “These guys know, I didn’t need to go in to give them any song and dance.”

St. Mary’s sophomore Erick Rivera had a total of 20 points in Thursday's game, with all 20 coming in the second half.

“We had to wake up,” Rivera said. “We came out with two points in the first quarter so I knew I had to step up and do something. But my teammates got me the ball. We just got going together.”

The state playoffs start on Thursday and both teams are eagerly awaiting the release of the brackets on Sunday.

Amundsen said him and Peterson were actually having a chat about the brackets after the game. It turns out that there is a strong possibility that these two teams will meet early on in the playoffs.

Rivera and St. Mary’s, who are now 15-11 after Friday’s win, are looking forward to cleaning up their game and coming out even stronger in the postseason.

“We got to get our mind right,” Rivera said. “We can’t come out like that again because against better teams, they would have made us pay. We just got to get ready.”

Although Chaparral (8-18) doesn’t know who it will face in its upcoming first round playoff game, with tonight’s loss coming on its last game of the regular season, Peterson said that there is just one key factor missing from the puzzle.

“The biggest thing is they know they can compete, they know they can play,” Peterson added. “St. Mary’s has got a great team. They are real athletic, they can attack off the dribble, they can post you up and they can hit the outside shots. So, we know we can compete. Now, it’s just ourselves having the confidence of finishing a game.” 

Miranda Tomlinson is a sports journalism junior at Arizona State University.

Twitter: @MirandaAnnTom